The event kicked off at 10am on the dot on Mat 1, the mat where I was running the brackets with the help of my carlson Gracie Essex team mate Ash, and my friend Sonya's daughter and Jiu Jistu competitor, Jasmine.
Being the first on the mat is double nerve wracking, nerves from the fight and nerves from everyone watching you. All the competitors did so well and I got to watch some really awesome fights all day.
A lot of my team mates from Chelmsford were competing for the first time. I'm particularly proud of my friend Amanda, who only decided to sign up to the competition less than a week earlier. She's only been training for a couple of months, and had 2 injuries in that time, but she's as tough as a lion, and passed the guard of one of her opponents and secured the win for that fight. She also fought a team mate from London, Hannah Jell, who is really technical and a great grappler, but lost out to Hannah. Amanda took home a very beautiful Silver medal. Her husband Gary also competed and was the one who convinced Amanda to compete. I'm sure she is glad he did.
We had a lot of friends on the stalls. Ollie from Saviour Tea had a stall and was giving out tastings to everyone. He promotes and sells sports tea for Energy, Hydration, Metabolic and Recovery. They taste and smell amazing. Being a tea fan, I'm a massive fan on Saviour Tea.
His website give a great deal of information and you can find out all about how good Saviour Tea is here www.Saviourtea.com
My friend Alina has a food company that provides low in carb and gluten free cooked meals, and snacks and she delivers them to your work or home. Wholesome A Fare was a huge hit at the Chelmsford Open and Alina gave me some great feedback. She was impressed at how concerned jiu jitsu people are with their diet, and how much care they put in to eating healthy.
Alina's stall was a huge success and to find out more about her food, click here www.Wholesomeafare.co.uk
We had the pleasure of James from Progress Jiu Jitsu's company at the Chelmsford Open. He brought with him a stacked stall full of fight wear. Everyone was loving the brand and the guys really enjoyed their day at the event. To find out more you can click here www.progressjj.co.uk
A friend of everyone in Jiu Jitsu came to visit us and he brought along his family too. Seymour Yang, also known as Meerkatsu, had a stack of fight wear and patches for sale. I even stocked up on a couple of patches myself, thanks to the man himself.
The whole day was brilliant, and I'm still receiving some excellent feedback about the event, mainly how well it ran and how all the fights ran on time. That was all thanks to Dickie Martin, who is pretty ace at manking sure each bracket is calculated correctly.
Thank you to all the competitors, spectators, stall holders, Dickie, Sarah, all the referee's and a special mention to the kent guys and everyone who helped out at the tables. You're all awesome!
Now on to the food part......
I signed up with Able & Cole a couple of weeks ago and got my first box through. First error was Potatoes, Doh!! I went straight online and changed that. Every now and again they are ok, but not in a weekly food shop. All the fruit and veg is organic and I got some great things in the box.
Something I have never cooked before that was in the box was Turnips! I don't think I've even tasted one before I got the box. How shameful is that!?
Able and cole give you a great book that is full of brilliant ideas for cooking the veg they send. The recipe for a Turnip fritata was a lovely idea, but full of Creme fraiche and not very good for keeping my weigh down. So I went online and found a simple way to cook Turnips.
Ingredients:
2 Turnips
Cube of fresh ginger, grated
Table spoon of honey
Olive oil or coconut oil if you pefer.
Method:
Set the oven to 200 degrees C.
Peel the turnips and cut of the ends.
Slice in to discs about 5mm thick. Cover with the oil, then smother the honey and ginger over them.
Plce in the oven for about 45-50 minutes and keep turning every 15 minutes to get an even coating of honey and ginger on them.
They taste great hot or cold. I put mine in my lunch salad then next day and the flavours of the honey and ginger are subtle, but gorgeous.
Enjoy!
Jolie x
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